


Sleepless Night III

by LadyValkyrie



Series: Nights not spent sleeping [3]
Category: Black Sails
Genre: Brief smattering of smut, F/M, M/M, Memories, More angst and sex, Past Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-30
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2019-02-23 23:13:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13200618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyValkyrie/pseuds/LadyValkyrie
Summary: They were together again. Thomas held James tightly to his chest, he was half-crying, half-laughing at having his truest love back in his arms.As they broke apart, James choked, ‘I didn’t believe them when they told me you were here. You’ve been lost to me for ten years. God, I think I’m going mad, I can hardly believe you’re standing in front of me.’In which James and Thomas share their experiences of their ten years apart.





	Sleepless Night III

They were together again. Thomas held James tightly to his chest, he was half-crying, half-laughing at having his truest love back in his arms.

As they broke apart, James choked, ‘I didn’t believe them when they told me you were here. You’ve been lost to me for ten years. God, I think I’m going mad, I can hardly believe you’re standing in front of me.’

Stil smiling, Thomas said, ‘I’m here, my love, I’m here.’

By this time, they’d attracted the attention of all and sundry, the guards barked at Thomas to get back to work, so, and not without significant regret, Thomas let James go and went back to digging.

**  
Later that evening, Thomas took James back to the bunkhouse, and as soon as they were alone, James blurted out ‘Miranda is dead. I’m sorry. It’s my fault, I didn’t protect her.’

Thomas sank onto his bunk, stunned into silence. He looked up to see that James was crying silently. He sat down beside Thomas and took his hand. 

‘Tell me what happened’ Thomas whispered softly.

‘We went to Charlestown. Peter Ashe was the governor there. We discovered that he was the one that betrayed us in London. One of Peter’s men shot Miranda. And it is my fault she died, I didn’t look after her properly and I should never have agreed to her coming.’ James’ words tumbled out in a rush.

Thomas shook his head, confused ‘What? Why were you in Charlestown? What do you mean about Peter?'

James closed his eyes, he looked exhausted. He opened his mouth to speak when they were interrupted by the other bunkhouse residents returning. 

‘That is rather a long tale, my love. It will keep for another time and best told when we are alone.’

**  
A few nights later, Thomas heard James tossing and turning in the bunk next to him. Sleep was eluding them both. Thomas got up, took James' hand, and pulled him out of bed. They snuck quietly down into the trees behind the sleeping quarters, and found their way to a small clearing.

‘We won’t be found here’ Thomas said, ‘I come here when I can’t sleep. If you lie on your back, you can see all the stars, it’s beautiful. I missed the seeing stars when I was in Bedlam.’

They both lay down on their backs, and looked up into the clear night.

James murmured, ‘Will you tell me how you survived the mad house and ended up in a plantation in Savannah?’

Thomas paused, ‘No. You first.’

**  
James told Thomas of how he and Miranda left London. Of how they fought bitterly on the voyage to the Bahamas over their decision to not attempt to free Thomas.

Of how they established themselves up in Nassau, of how he found himself a ship, then quickly took over as Captain.

Of how the first time Miranda cooked dinner, they ended up with tough, chewy beef, burnt, yet somehow raw-on-the inside vegetables and some watery liquid that was supposed to be gravy. When James had gently suggested that next time the fire probably didn’t need to be so hot and that she shouldn’t have cooked the meat for so long, Miranda stood up without a word and swiped the pathetic meal onto the floor, and stormed into their bedroom, slamming the door. James heard her crying as he cleaned up the kitchen.

He recounted the time when he had captured his first big prize, he came home to Miranda, showered her with gold, and came stocked with fine china and tea. Of how they had properly made love for the first time since losing Thomas, of how they came together and fell asleep in each other’s arms, and it was the best night’s sleep James had had for months.

*   
He spoke of learning of Thomas’ death, the chasm that it opened between him and Miranda, how they cried and the void that was left in James. 

Miranda learnt that Thomas’ father was sailing to the new world and set James on the hunt to find him. When he returned, Miranda was waiting at the dock in Nassau. They embraced, James’ crew watching on while he whispered in her ear ’They’re dead. It is done.’ She gave him a grim smile and kissed him.

‘Good’ she snarled quietly. They walked back into the town, when Miranda suddenly grabbed his arm, pushed James up against the wall of the alley and started to kiss him hard, biting his lips, and starts to fumble at his crotch. 

‘Take me now!’ she hissed in his ear, and of course he wanted her desperately so he flipped her round so her back was to the wall and he shoved her skirts up while she freed his cock.

They fucked against the wall like a couple of alley cats, James grunting with the effort, and Miranda gasping as she neared climax. She’s slick and wet, and James was powerful, yes so powerful, he’d finally avenged Thomas. 

‘Tell me what it was like,’ Miranda asked, breathless, as he pounds her. He described the blood, the primal joy he felt from slashing the throat of Earl’s woman, the high he experienced as he beat the Earl to death.

He thrusted hard, and came in her with a yell, and it’s only at this point that he realised that they weren’t actually far from the main street and that most of the crew probably heard, if not saw, them.

Miranda straightened her clothes and took James back to her wagon. They returned to their house and before they could enter, James caught Miranda around the waist and they fucked again on the front porch. She was still wet and sticky with his seed, and this time he pulled the front of her dress apart and pinched her nipples as she orgasmed, and as he finished for the second time he buried his head in her breasts.

The following morning James awoke to Miranda washing herself. Her back was covered in scrapes from the rough alley wall, and her wrists are bruised from where he held her on the porch.

*  
James regaled Thomas with the story of a Spaniard named Vasquez, and how that story changed the course of his future.

*   
He informed Thomas of keeping Richard Guthrie at the house and how angry he had been at Miranda when he discovered her reading Meditations to their unwanted house guest. And how they’d had noisy sex after the argument, making sure the headboard banged against the wall - why? to prove his manhood to Richard Guthrie? - and how he couldn’t look at her, he couldn’t climax and how he wanted nothing more than to shove her off the bed and not have her touch him. 

*  
Thomas heard about the search for the Urca gold, and of the other pirates in Nassau. He learnt of the kidnapping of Abigail Ashe, and James’ plan to return her to Charlestown and seek pardons from Peter.

The last time James and Miranda were intimate was on the way to Charlestown. While Abigail was enjoying the sun on deck, James pulled Miranda into the cabin and went down on her, licking and sucking on her clit, fingering her slick and wet cunt, until she came, panting for more.

*  
They grieve together as James recounted the details of Miranda’s death.

‘I raged when you were taken from me. But her death destroyed me.’ 

*  
James retold the story of the cache, the return of civilisation, the death of Charles Vane. He spoke of John Silver and Madi and the Maroons and the war to end it all. 

And James told Thomas of the downfall of Captain Flint on that cursed Island and how James McGraw had been consigned to the plantation.

**  
Thomas reached over and took James’ hand. They lay together in silence until dawn broke on the horizon.

As they walked back to the bunk house, Thomas said, with some wonder ‘I can’t imagine Miranda cooking.’

James stopped, and stared at Thomas. ‘After everything I’ve told you tonight, that’s all you have to say?’

Thomas smiled sadly and kissed James on the cheek and kept walking.

***  
They went back to the clearing the next night. This time it was Thomas who told James of his experiences of the past ten years.

*  
The Earl’s men had manhandled Thomas to the asylum, where he promptly found himself locked in a cell. 

He endured the medical treatments as best he was able, and tried to reason with the orderlies and the doctors, but to no avail. He lost weight, his hair began to turn grey and thin, and after a few years he couldn’t really remember his old life - he remembered the people of course, but it was the small things - what it was like to be a little peckish and ring for food, what it was like to sleep in a comfortable bed. Wear nice clothes. Wash regularly. 

*  
Thomas spoke of the time when the orderlies caught him masturbating in his cell, and knowing of his sexual proclivities, dragged him into the ice bath, and held him under for a full minute. Of how they tried to do it again, but Thomas wouldn’t let go of the edge of the tub until they broke a couple of his fingers. 

*  
He told James of the feeling that he was actually going mad. He came to the realisation quite quickly that he would be there for the rest of his life. No one was coming to free him. Once this thought had embedded itself in Thomas’ mind, he could not shake it.

Thomas lost track of time, had trouble forming coherent thoughts and sentences on the rare occasions he was spoken to. He hated the crowds that would pour through Bedlam to jeer at the insane.

*  
James learnt that the decision to transport Thomas to the colonies had been taken after the death of the Earl. He heard how Thomas suffered panic attacks on the ship as he couldn’t deal with the large, scary expanse of the ocean, having spent so many years only seeing the stone walls of his cell. Until the sea voyage, Thomas hadn’t been outside in the better part of five years. 

Upon arriving in Savannah he settled in quickly to his new life. He took joy from seeing the stars again and feeling the sun on his face.

*  
He advised James that, despite several offers from the other inmates at the plantation, there had never been anyone else.

‘I find myself unable to perform, my dear.’ 

**  
James held Thomas close at the conclusion of his story. He murmured in Thomas’ ear ‘I’m so sorry. I should have tried to get you out.’

‘It would have been no use, dearest. My father had paid the asylum far too well to allow me to escape.’

They watched the stars start to disappear as dawn approached.

‘I should have stayed with you,’ James said flatly. ‘In the early days, when we became lovers, I was so worried that we would be caught that I never stayed. I wasted so many nights and mornings when I should have been with you but I ran away afraid. When I heard of your death, it was the thing I regretted most. So much wasted time, and it took me so long to be comfortable to be with you.’

‘What’s done is done. We are here together now, that’s what matters for the future.’

James was quiet for a few moments. ‘So speaking of the future, my love, I have a few ideas about how we can leave this place. If you’ll come with me, of course.’

Thomas smiled, ‘I would follow you to the ends of the earth, dear James. Provided of course that my, er, current problem is not an impediment.’

James rolled over on top of Thomas and began to kiss him. ‘My love, it doesn’t matter. As long as we are together, that’s all that is important.’ They stayed this way; holding each other and re-familiarising themselves with their bodies. After a short time, James paused in his efforts, grinning.

‘I think there’s life in the old dog yet, Thomas.'

**Author's Note:**

> So this ended up more angsty than I originally intended - but I hope you enjoy :)


End file.
